Poster #150 - The Contributions of Parental Working Memory and Mentalization to Negative Parenting Among Mothers and Fathers

• In Event: 1-115 - Poster Session 03
  In Poster Session: PS 03 Section - Parenting & Parent-Child Relationships

Integrative Statement

Introduction. Recently, a vast amount of research has been dedicated to two parental characteristics as determinants of parenting: parental cognitive control (Crandall et al., 2015) and parental mentalization (PM; Sharp & Fonagy, 2008). Cognitive control, the ability to regulate thoughts and actions (Braver, 2012), has been linked with lower levels of negative parenting behaviors, such as inconsistent discipline and negativity towards children's emotions (e.g., Bridgett et al., 2013; Chen & Johnston, 2007; Valiente et al., 2007). One of the core components of cognitive control, working memory (WM), has been suggested to affect parenting through its role in emotion regulation (e.g., Rutherford et al., 2016). PM, parents' tendency to regard their child as an independent psychological agent and reflect on their child’s mental-states (Sharp & Fonagy, 2008), is an additional process crucial for emotional regulation (e.g., Fonagy et al., 2002). PM has been associated with less negative parenting behaviors, such as hostility (Lok & McMahon, 2006), and has recently been found to buffer against the negative effect of poor emotion regulation on negative parenting (Borelli et al., 2017; Gershy & Gray, 2018). The aim of the present study was to examine the contribution of WM and PM, as two basic mechanisms aiding emotion regulation, in negative parenting among mothers and fathers.
Methods. Participant included 99 mothers (59 preterm, 40 full-term) and 73 fathers (42 preterm, 31 full-term) of 5.5-year-old children. PM was measured by coding Parent Development Interviews for Parental Reflective Functioning (Slade et al., 2007). WM was measured using the 2-back task (e.g., Schmiedek et al., 2009). For the assessment of negative parenting, parents completed the negative parenting style scale from the Parent Report questionnaire (Dibble & Cohen, 1974).
Results. Linear regressions (Table 1) revealed that the interaction between WM and PM was significantly associated with negative parenting among fathers (p =.011) and was nearing significance among mothers (p =.058). Simple-slopes analyses revealed a similar pattern of results among both mothers and fathers (Figure 1): WM was negatively associated with negative parenting among parents with low PM, but the association was nonsignificant among parents with high PM. Next, these associations were further examined in two subscales of the negative parenting scale: psychological control (control of the child through anxiety, guilt, and hostility) and inconsistent enforcement of discipline. Among fathers, poor WM was associated with inconsistent enforcement of discipline. Furthermore, this link was moderated by paternal PM, revealing a significant association among fathers with low (β=-.59, p<.001) and mean (β=-.23, p=.044) PM, but not among fathers with high PM (β=.13, p=.526). Conversely, among mothers, poor WM was associated with higher use of psychological control (β=-.27, p=.009).
Discussion. These findings suggest that WM and PM contribute together to parental abilities to refrain from negative parenting behaviors, among both mothers and fathers. However, these effects seem to be related to different components of parenting among mothers and fathers. The importance of WM and PM, as well as similarities and differences between mothers and fathers, will be discussed.

Authors

• Tal Yatziv, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev
  Presenting Author

• Yoav Kessler, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev
  Non-Presenting Author

• Naama Atzaba-Poria, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev
  Non-Presenting Author